Can’t believe I’ve been here for a whole week, just two days and I’ll be back in Bristol

Day 5
Breakfast – I grabbed some oatmeal and also decided to have a blueberry muffin scone thing which looked pretty good…

…unfortunately it tasted like crap, dry, tasteless and dense, like biting into cardboard. This meant it went straight in the trash.

Lunch – we were doing a working lunch today (have to say I was relieved, all this eating out is more than even a hardened foodie like me can deal with!) so we ordered sandwiches in from Fat Jacks. The meal deal was a sub sandwich, crisps, a coke and randomly a pickle! The sandwich was really good, I had roast beef salad and it really hit the spot. The pickles were great too, we would call them gherkins and luckily I love gherkins, so it suited me down to the ground.

Dinner – for dinner I was taken to one of the oldest parts if Denver, South Pearl Street. This was beautiful, it really looked like an old school American town. So pretty.

Plan A was to go for sushi, however the restaurant was closed when we go there so instead we went to a really quaint little place called Black Pearl which served contemporary American cuisine.

To start we had toasted cheese stuffed mushrooms. By American standards the portion was pretty meagre, even by British standards I’d call it minimal with just 3 mushrooms on there. It could have done with being a bit warmer but was ok.

What the starter lacked however, the main more than made up for. I went for rabbit fettucini with walnuts. A large portion yes, I only ate half. The taste and flavours though were phenomenal. The rabbit was tender and just fell apart in your mouth, the sauce was rich and warming. It was really really good.

Chip, my ‘date’ for the evening went for edamame corn cakes which he also said were pretty good. All in all a wonderful bar and restaurant and great food.

We ended the evening in style at an electro gig in a bar across town where I attempted to drink beers with the best of them!

Day 6
Breakfast – I started with a cooked breakfast, scrambled eggs with cheese, sausage, crispy back and fried potatoes with onion and peppers. It was pretty good (I still think our fry ups are the best)

Lunch – another working lunch, we decided to go for the healthy option by popping in to Garbanzo, a mediterranean grill serving falafal, chicken and salads in pittas and wraps. This was really good, I especially loved the fact they had home made crisps as part of their meal deal. And you could really taste they were home made. This one probably wins the award for my healthiest meal of the week.

I spent the evening chilling in my room, eating leftover potato chips and watching films. Sometimes it’s good to just take some time out, especially after the busy week I’d had!

Day 7
My final day in Denver was very much a day of discovery…

Cinema popcorn – you can top this with liquified butter which comes out of a dispenser (like the sauce dispensers in McDonalds.) How they keep this in a liquid form, I really don’t know. All I can say is: WTF?

Peanut butter M&Ms, tootsie rolls & reese’s pieces – we can’t get these in the UK but they are peanutty, buttery, choclatey candy heaven.

The grocery store – there are many weird and wonderful thngs in American grocery stores. From liquid cheese, to isles of candy, about twenty different varients of “just add tequila margharita mix” and what seemed to be an entire six shelves dedicated to smash (shudder). Of the more wonderful things were packs of Colorado aberdeen angus T-bone for $7 (thats about £4). If there was any way I could have smuggled this back in my suitcase, I would have.

Liqor - in most parts of America it’s still illegal to sell anything more than light beer in the grocery store. Which means you have to go the the liquor store to get wine, spirits etc. For my whiskey-loving-boyfriend I decided to by a bottle of Stranhans Colorado Whiskey. Distilled in the Rockys, this stuff is really good. Not only that but each bottle is labelled by hand, stating the batch number, the name of the distiller and what they were doing at the time it was bottled – now how’s that for unique?!

Picklebacks - that evening I was taken to some all-American bars and a dance night. Whilst getting in the party sprit I had my very first pickleback. Essentially this is a shot of Jamesons whiskey, with a pickle juice chaser. Yes thats right, the watery juice out of a jar of pickled gherkins. It was certainly an ummm… experience?!

My highlight of day 7 was not foodie related at all but nonetheless is the last picture I want to share with you. The beautiful Red Rocks amphitheatre, a natural amphitheatre in the foothills of the Rockys which has played host to some of the biggest and best rockstars of our time, think the Beatles, think Hendrix, think Motley Crue, think U2 – anyone who is anyone has played here.

So there you have it – my stateside trip is over. First thing on the to do list when I get back to the UK? Exercise and attempt a spree of healthy eating, for the first week anyway!